My understanding is players have to let (presumably WADA or their respective governing body on WADA's behalf) the testers know where they are going to be for a certain amount of time (I think it is at least a few weeks) and they are randomly tested. Not being available and missing a test counts as failing one. A certain number will be randomly picked at every game to be tested as well, i.e. basically the same as most professional athletes/sports. I've read posts on twitter where players have been complaining about being woken up at stupid o clock on their day off to give a sample.

The IRB has a "Keep Rugby Clean" campaign- all subs etc wearing a bib at the 7s in Australia had that all over them, don't know if this is going to be repeated in other forms of the game- here's the link: http://www.irb.com/keeprugbyclean/

Am I imagining it, or was there a problem with a few of the SA players a few years ago when we played them in the AI? They said that it was something in the food, a supplement that was given to all of them, as far as I remember.

TheBear wrote:Am I imagining it, or was there a problem with a few of the SA players a few years ago when we played them in the AI? They said that it was something in the food, a supplement that was given to all of them, as far as I remember.

As mentioned above, pro players have to state where they will be on a daily basis. I remember Rob Kearney tweeting about how it was such a drag having to do so. I think that is a WADA thing.

I'd like to think Rugby is clean, particularly Irish Rugby. But I suppose you never know. The cover up methodology is so advanced, one simply cant reply on testing alone. You basically need to uncover a doping strategy or the supply chain and catch them in the act.

I certainly think that rugby here is clean. That's not just a biased view but I just don't think we have a culture of it and know guys who would have played provincial rugby at underage level and they certainly wouldn't have been the types to do it.

At a guess I would say that people do it on an invidual basis all over the world, certainly don't think the sport has any real problem with it.

Avenger wrote:I was following a similar train of thought/conversation from a few football journos on twitter last week. One of them seemed to hint that he thinks it is going on in football.

There were particular teams linked in football. The thing about sniggering innuendo and gossip is... when it comes to drugs in sport it usually turns out to be right.

Barca freely admit that Lionel Messi is on growth hormones. He's not the only Barca player to be getting boosters either.

Didn't he move to Spain specifically so that he could get growth hormones? He got them as a teenager before playing for Barca. Actually probably while playing also but I'm sure he has a medical on that given it was so open. And to be fair it's not quite like the number of say, GAA players, that "are" asthmatic.

Didn't know that they were getting "boosters" but you could argue that the ability to provide movement, non-stop, all game would lend itself to being helped by certain other, non-steroid, non-growth hormone treatments common in another sport regularly under scrutiny.

Datta: what have we given?My friend, blood shaking my heartThe awful daring of a moment's surrenderWhich an age of prudence can never retract What the thunder said to Brian Lenihan

The Madrid media have been linking Barca to former Astana doctors. Nothing has stuck yet though.

I remember the Juve doctor getting two years for administering performance enhancing drugs to their players. Afaik that was an Italian state investigation though rather than anything that UEFA, FIFA, or even WADA initiated. Of the close to 300 different types of drug drugs he the doctor administered none were on FIFA’s banned list at the time.

The ‘Secret Footballer’ has said in the past that he has never once witnessed it in the English game. Richard Sadlier tells a different tale.

Marta was watching the game with me when she said, "You know, most of these sports are based on the idea of one group protecting its territory from invasion by another group." "Yeah," I said, trying not to laugh. Girls are funny.

Logorrhea wrote:While digesting the whole Lance Armstrong saga, Ive been wondering what kind of anti-doping controls do they have in rugby? Do they have any at all? Who is the authority in control of them?

I spose I'm just wondering if one day we'll be reading headlines about rugby player x, and their use of performance enhancing drugs throughout their career.

Edit:

I remember frankie sheahan, was lucky to get his ban lifted for using Salbutamol inhaler for his asthma. Salbutamol is now a banned substance and athletes have been known to use it to increase lung capacity.

LeRouxIsPHat wrote:I certainly think that rugby here is clean. That's not just a biased view but I just don't think we have a culture of it and know guys who would have played provincial rugby at underage level and they certainly wouldn't have been the types to do it.

Not to pick at this one, or your opinion, but isnt this exactly what fans of Armstrong, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, and every other high profile athlete that were caught were saying for the last few years? And looking at the evidence, Armstrong, Hamilton, Landos etc were all clearn until the sport itself pushed thim into using drugs?

LeRouxIsPHat wrote:I certainly think that rugby here is clean. That's not just a biased view but I just don't think we have a culture of it and know guys who would have played provincial rugby at underage level and they certainly wouldn't have been the types to do it.

Not to pick at this one, or your opinion, but isnt this exactly what fans of Armstrong, Barry Bonds, Marion Jones, and every other high profile athlete that were caught were saying for the last few years? And looking at the evidence, Armstrong, Hamilton, Landos etc were all clearn until the sport itself pushed thim into using drugs?

It's also what we're hearing about Bolt despite his incredibly shady connections.

Cycling and athletics both have a history of it though, I just don't think it's part of the rugby culture.

Does Bolt have shady connections? If he was to be found out to be a cheat then that'd be the final straw for me and athletics...admittedly I only watch about 3 minutes of athletics every year but even so!

“When people ask me about Bolt, I say he could be the greatest athlete of all time,” Carl Lewis told the Times of London. “But for someone to run 10.03 one year and 9.69 the next, if you don’t question that in a sport that has the reputation it has right now, you’re a fool.”

Bolt reportedly has been working with Angel Hernandez, too. Hernandez used to be called Angel Heredia

Before the games in Beijing, Heredia told Germany’s Der Spiegel that, regarding the 100-meter final, “the winner will not be clean. Not even any of the contestants will be clean. There is no doubt about it, the difference between 10.0 and 9.7 seconds is the drugs.”

Bolt's manager, Ricky Simms, has since denied any connection with Hernandez. Speaking in late August he said

Usain has no connection with any of these people. Nobody from Team Bolt has any connection or knows any of these people

(The these people he refers to are Hernandez and Juan Manuel Marquez, a boxer who has a history of using performance enhancing drugs and hired Angel Hernandez as his strength and conditioning coach for a fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao.)

Is Bolt working with Hernandez? Did he hire him as a "coach" in 2009? If the answer to either of those questions is yes then it's looking very dodgy for Bolt.

Worrying. I have heard that with a lot of drug cheats in athletics the difference in times from when they were younger to after they doped is quite obvious (no sh*t Sherlock!) but that with Bolt, his times always showed steady progress which tied in with his physical development.

LeRouxIsPHat wrote:Worrying. I have heard that with a lot of drug cheats in athletics the difference in times from when they were younger to after they doped is quite obvious (no sh*t Sherlock!) but that with Bolt, his times always showed steady progress which tied in with his physical development.

That's very worrying though.

To be honest it never seriously crossed my mind that Bolt wasn't awash in drugs. Not once.

Datta: what have we given?My friend, blood shaking my heartThe awful daring of a moment's surrenderWhich an age of prudence can never retract What the thunder said to Brian Lenihan